DeSoto Housing Shows Promise

The estimated percentage drop this year is far less than between 2007 and 2008, when officials issued 64.1 percent fewer single-family building permits. Don Berge, president of MarketGraphics Research Group, recently spoke to the the Home Builders Association of North Mississippi about the health of the housing market.

He told the assembled members that the inventory of houses has dropped in the Memphis Metro Area and that will provide builders an opportunity to fill a demand -- just as soon as consumer confidence rallies. "I'm optimistic about it and I think we're at the point it's going to start rising," he said of the market.

Donnie Chambliss, president of Home Builders group, said the housing market started to see improvement this past summer because of the federal home buyers tax credit implemented early this year and recently extended through April.

First-time buyers get an $8,000 credit, and home buyers who have lived in their home at least five years can qualify for a $6,500 credit. According to the IRS, about 1.4 million people applied for the credit through August.

Chambliss believes DeSoto County builders, particularly those in business here a long time, have weathered the slowdown well.

"Our builders are still building. It's a credit to them and to where we are," Chambliss said.

The county planner has praised DeSoto's performance during the economic storm, too, saying it fared better than many communities and was coming from a phenomenal high in housing construction.

The rising month-by-month numbers are "healthy and solid growth, I think," McDougal said.